Reading Response Week 3

I think that it is wrong to leave passengers inside the plane for almost 11 hours especially in the middle of a bad winter storm and when they only have peanuts/chips to eat. I know how frustrating this could be, especially for those with little children.

In Luntz’s article, the point is made several times that the key to public communication is that it’s not what you say, but what people hear. I think that JetBlue did a really good job of understanding this concept. In several ways, including the innovative use of YouTube, the company wanted to make it loud and clear that they were sorry for what had happened.

The situation with JetBlue was pretty surprising to me. Actually, I think the situation was handled poorly. Most companies have well thought out crisis plans that are able to deal with almost any situation that goes bad. In this case, it appears that there was no plan to deal with a crisis.

I think the initial way JetBlue handled the crisis was wrong. They should never have left their customers in the plane and on the runway for that long. The passenger’s safety and personal comfort should have been the primary concern of the company.

The readings for today really shed light on the chaos at JetBlue. I can see how I will implement them for this project in the near future. First off, the reading in the text and also Luntz’s “Words that Work” show how effective proper word usage can be. One important tip I learned from those readings was the effectiveness of diction.

While reading about the JetBlue crisis and the ethics articles I thought of a class I took last semester. Organizational Behavior and Human Relations, OBHR, is a management course that helps you become a good decision maker based on the situation and parties involved.

Jet Blue's handling of the crisis itself was a disaster, but their response was done well. I wouldn't say their response was "exceptional" though, I believe all companies should respond in such a manner. I feel in general consumers allow businesses to not be accountable for their actions. I'm not sure if "seller beware" applies all that often.

I think that JetBlue handled the crisis in an effective way. A storm in February of 2007 led to the cancellation of about a thousand flights, as well as lengthy waits on the runways and many unhappy customers. JetBlue was a young company, and had a chance to really mess things up for their customers, but kept trying to dig itself out of the problems it faced.

In the reading about the Jet Blue crisis, I still can't believe that a airline would chance the weather and be willing to wait it out and not take immediate action. But I do think that the CEO handled it very well by enabling the Customer Bill of Rights.

In the past week we have done a lot of reading about JetBlue and the problems they were having just over a year ago. I think they did some things as best they could and some things were definitely lacking. First, I understand that they did not cancel as many flights as they probably should have.